1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a point-of-sale (POS) terminal and a POS system using a mobile terminal, and more particularly, to a POS terminal and a POS system, by which the cost spent for the establishment of the POS system is reduced, and ordering, payment and management of sales information can be conducted irrespective of location, thereby maximizing user convenience, and the general functions of a POS terminal, such as barcode scanning, near-field communication (NFC), signing, and the like, can be performed based on a variety of functions of a mobile terminal in order to provide an optimum solution in any sales environment.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, a point-of-sale (POS) system refers to a system that is installed at the checkout of a retailer, such as a big-box store, a supermarket, or a convenience store, in order to record the result of the sale of products. This system processes data involving the sale of products at the point of sale. The POS system is also generally referred to as a “POS information management system.”
The POS system is a system that records information about a product that is sold, immediately at the point of sale, in order to centrally manage sales information. The POS system is a total sales management system, in which a demand-processing system provided in a store and a main computer of an operator are electronically connected to each other in order to combine, synthesize, and evaluate information at the point of sale in real-time, thereby enhancing the ability to deal with customers.
Specifically, the POS system reads barcodes, OCR tags (i.e. price tags for an optical character recognition (OCR) device) or the like, which are attached to products, using a scanner in order to automatically calculate prices while collecting and inputting all information about products. This system performs a key role in enabling store automation in the retail industry, including department stores, banks, large bookstores, etc. Since various kinds of sales information can be systematically managed, stock can be advantageously maintained at a suitable amount. POS data collected in this way make it possible to grasp the sales trend of new products and sales hooks, the trend of hot items and dead items, which have not been sold, the sales trend of imitations and competitive items, analysis based on customer demographics, analysis based on time, correlative analysis between the price and the amount of sales, the state of exhibition, the effect of advertising in the mass media, and the like, so that plans for manufacturing, sales and advertising can be established.
However, since the POS system of the related art is connected to a computer for use, it can be used only in a fixed position, but is not easy to move or carry. Because of such problems, a payment system using a personal digital assistant (PDA) has been provided recently.
Significantly large expense is spent for establishing a POS system, and management expenses are continuously incurred, thereby increasing the cost of operation and maintenance. Since the POS system is bulky and heavy, it is difficult to carry it, and thus must be furnished in a fixed position for use. That is, the POS system has the problem of being limited to use in particular places.
Therefore, small stores or those who conduct business or sales out of stores do not use a general POS system, which is problematic.
That is, the installation of the POS system is a burden since it is expensive, and the POS system is not readily adapted to the mobile environment of a user. Therefore, there is the demand to solve these problems.
Recently, the use of mobile terminals, such as a tablet personal computer (PC) and a smart-phone, has been maximized, and their performance has also grown to the level of the performance of a fixed computer, a notebook computer, or the like. In addition, new mobile terminals are becoming inexpensive compared to existing products, and provide an environment that a user can easily use while moving. Therefore, there is continuous demand for the study and development of a new POS system that makes the best use of such advantages and overcomes the drawbacks of traditional POS systems.